H-P Plans to Unveil Smart Phone — Hewlett-Packard Co., aiming to grow its device business beyond corporate users, is preparing to release a new smart phone that will also be marketed to consumers, according to people briefed on the plan. The device will debut in Europe, these people say …

Music downloads avoid rate hike — The veiled threat to shut down iTunes if royalty rates on downloaded songs were hiked has been averted. — The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) opted to keep the status quo and turned down a request to increase royalties from 9 to 15 cents on songs bought online.

Flickr's iPhone-friendly (beta) redesign — A great deal of Web companies have long since converted their iPhone-optimized sites into native iPhone apps, but not Yahoo's Flickr. Instead, Flickr is just getting around to tweaking its mobile site, m.flickr.com—in beta—specifically for iPhones.

Is the link economy really broken? — It happened amid the stream of Twitter messages about the vice-presidential debates between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, so a lot of people probably missed it, but Allen Stern of Centernetworks said something that really caught my eye: “it's clear the link economy is broken.”

The T-Grid: Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic vs. the iPhone — Give Steve Jobs this: When Apple frets publicly about other companies ripping off the iPhone, it has a point. The iPhone is quickly becoming what the Mac was more than twenty years ago, only more so: A device that sets the style …

Skype President Addresses Chinese Privacy Breach — You may have seen some reports in the media about a security and privacy breach in the software provided by our Chinese partner, TOM Online. I'm writing to let you know where we stand, and what we're doing to resolve the problem.

Two Online Health Site Operators to Announce a Merger — In a deal that threatens WebMD's dominance in the health care space, Revolution Health Network plans to announce on Friday that it has merged with Waterfront Media, a publisher that owns several health Web sites.

Big Blogger Pay Cuts At b5Media — Toronto based b5Media is changing the way it pays bloggers in its hundreds-strong blog network, according to an email memo sent out to partners by CEO Jeremy Wright and copied below. — Gone are guaranteed payments of “$100-$200/month” plus bonuses for traffic.

Apple Releases iTunes 8.0.1 (Stability and Bug Fixes) — Apple has released an update to iTunes to version 8.0.1. The update is available in Mac OS X's Software Update and provides the following features: … Apple released iTunes 8.0 on September 9th. iTunes 8 introduced Genius playback …

Sen. Kohl asks for continued Google, Yahoo monitoring — Yahoo Inc's (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) deal to put some Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) ads on its searches may hurt the industry, and warrants monitoring by the U.S. Justice Department even if the agency eventually approves …

What's the big deal about WiMax? — Sprint Nextel has made headlines all week as it's started lighting up its first 4G wireless network using a technology called WiMax. But what exactly is WiMax? And how does it fit into the future of wireless? Here's a primer to help you sort it out.

Google Rethinks Its Aversion to Ads — Since its earliest days, Google Inc. has largely promoted its search engine and search-advertising products through word of mouth and partnerships. — But in recent months some of the Internet company's executives have been pushing for the company to overcome its aversion to paid advertising.

Polling Web 2.0's Presidential Debate Hubs — In the buildup to this election season's presidential debates, we've seen a number of services launch that aim to enhance the viewers' experience (and hopefully keep them informed). During tonight's highly anticipated Vice Presidential debate we put a few of them in the test.

IPhone Steals Lead Over Kindle — It's official: The iPhone is more popular than Amazon.com's Kindle. And not just in the obvious categories like listening to music, browsing the Web or the other applications where Kindle barely competes. Now, the iPhone is also muscling into Amazon's home turf: reading books.

2018 Top 100 Global Tech Leaders — 21st century technology-sector leadership requires more than financial success. It also requires a commitment to compliance, innovation, and much more. Who are today's leaders?